Cigar Lounge in Midtown East: Casa de Montecristo Daytime

Casa de Montecristo, at 1016 2nd Ave between East 53rd and 54th Streets, is Midtown East's daytime cigar lounge. It opens at 11 am every day, stays open until midnight Monday through Saturday, and works as a shop first: you buy a cigar from its large humidors, then settle into the lounge in front of nine TVs. Long-time New Yorkers still call it Cigar Inn, the name it carried when the lounge opened in 2008.

The Second Avenue store opened in 2008 as a new branch of Cigar Inn, the shop run by brothers Billy, Gus and Bass Fakih. Cigar Aficionado covered the opening in December 2008 because the store housed the world's first Cigar Aficionado smoking lounge, a 3,000-square-foot shop with the lounge taking up nearly a third of the floor.

In June 2015 Imperial Tobacco Group bought Cigar Inn's stores, and the Second Avenue shop was later rebranded under Casa de Montecristo, the retail name of Tabacalera USA's lounges. The cigarinn.com domain no longer belongs to the shop, so search for the new name when you look it up.

The 2008 report described a lounge outfitted with leather couches and chairs and a working gas fireplace. Today's store listing focuses instead on screens, humidors and air handling, so expect a sports-lounge feel rather than a library.

Montecristo is one of the most famous names in cigars. The brand was created in Havana in 1935 and named after Alexandre Dumas's novel The Count of Monte Cristo, a favorite of the lectors who read aloud to rollers on the factory floor. After the Cuban revolution, a separate Montecristo line for the US market was made in the Dominican Republic, and that American brand now belongs to Tabacalera USA.

Casa de Montecristo is the company's chain of retail lounges, and the Second Avenue store is its Manhattan outpost. That ownership explains the shop's polish: corporate-standard ventilation, large humidors and a website that sells boxes online for delivery.

The lounge lists its features plainly: nine TVs, four of them large 54-inch screens, large humidors, knowledgeable tobacconists, exclusive cigars, and state-of-the-art ventilation and exhaust systems. The pitch is simple: kick back and watch a game while you smoke. With four big screens and five smaller ones, a crowded college-football Saturday can have several games running side by side, so nobody has to fight over the remote.

Recent reviews on the store's page describe ample seating and a strong humidor. One regular, writing in September 2026, called it one of the best cigar lounges in the city, and another visitor in August said they popped in just to look at the selection and ended up staying for a cigar.

Because this is a tobacconist with a lounge rather than a bar, the order of operations matters. Walk the humidors first, tell the tobacconist what you usually smoke and how long you have, and buy your cigar at the counter before you take a seat. Newcomers do well with a mild-to-medium corona or robusto, which fits inside an hour and won't overwhelm a first visit.

The store's listed features include exclusive cigars alongside its large humidors, so ask what is only sold here. The prices on the website are for boxes and packs shipped to your door, and in-store single prices aren't published online. If you find something you like, buying the box in store saves a second trip.

The 11 am opening is an earlier start than a typical cocktail-style cigar bar, which tends to wait for the evening crowd. Office workers from the towers on Third and Lexington Avenues can fit in a lunchtime robusto, and on fall Sundays the four big screens make it a natural place to watch football.

Sunday hours run from 11 am to 11 pm, an hour shorter than the rest of the week. Weekday mornings right after opening are the quietest time to talk to the tobacconists, and you'll have the pick of the leather chairs.

The store doesn't sell tobacco to anyone under 21, so bring ID. Walk-ins are welcome, as the August reviewer who dropped in to browse and stayed to smoke shows: buy your cigar, pick a chair and settle in. Smoking is allowed indoors because New York permits it in qualifying tobacco shops, which is why you'll find lounges like this attached to cigar retailers rather than restaurants.

Time Out's listing for the old Cigar Inn described it as BYOB. The current store page doesn't mention drinks either way, so ask at the counter before you open a bottle.

Second Avenue in the low 50s sits on the edge of Turtle Bay, a quieter pocket between the Midtown office towers and the East River. Two blocks south, Greenacre Park on East 51st Street between Second and Third Avenues hides a 25-foot waterfall behind its gate, which makes for a good pre-cigar coffee stop on a warm afternoon.

Walk east along East 57th Street to Sutton Place Park, a small terrace overlooking the river and the Queensboro Bridge, for the best skyline view in the neighborhood. Back on Second Avenue, the strip between 50th and 60th Streets is lined with pubs and casual restaurants for dinner afterward.

On a rainy afternoon, walk west along 53rd Street for about 15 minutes to the Museum of Modern Art, then come back for a cigar. Heading the other way, the United Nations headquarters on First Avenue is roughly a ten-minute walk southeast, and its visitor entrance makes an easy pairing for an out-of-town guest.

Address: Casa de Montecristo Cigar Lounge, 1016 2nd Ave, New York, NY 10022, between East 53rd and 54th Streets.

Hours: Monday to Saturday 11 am to 12 am, Sunday 11 am to 11 pm.

Subway: Lexington Avenue/53rd Street (E, M) and 51st Street (6) are each a short walk west.

Age: 21 and over for tobacco purchases.

Website: casademontecristo.com lists this store as Manhattan 2nd Ave and also sells boxes and packs online.